Greenland 8°C warmer in September

06.10.2022, Greenland. In what would be the start to a series of anomalous temperature spikes in the autumnal shoulder season, the temperature at Greenland’s highest point was above freezing on Sept 3–the first time ever recorded in September. At this time, more than one-third of Greenland’s ice sheet (~600,000 square kilometers) was in melt and meltwater runoff peaked at 12bn tons per day. New data from Copernicus now shows that temperature anomalies in Greenland exceeded 8°C for the entire month of September (based on 1981-2010 data). This is significant because–even in an otherwise relatively ‘normal’ year for melt–we are seeing notable warming spells extend well into the post-season, indicative of how Arctic warming is strengthening and prolonging melting periods that will have global consequences, such as increased sea level rise. This follows on the heels of a paper by two Arctic Basecamp scientists, Drs Jason Box and Alun Hubbard, which highlights a committed 27cm of sea level rise from Greenland’s meltwater even if all emissions were cut immediately.